Any chance of a judgement here, now that the real action has gone on hold for a while? Not that I'm looking forward to the decision, just looking for closure I guess. It's been about a month since we finished.

I'm a bit sad to see how the ratings have worked out on my blows. The more work I put into it, the lower the rating. My highest rated image is one I threw together in a few minutes from a single photo and a simple carryover because I was too ill at the time to do any better. My lowest rated image is one I put the most work into, and it has the lowest rating I've had in a long long time. I think there's a message here. This will probably be my last battle. Time to put my energies into 'a more productive bag'.

It would be really sad to not see your work here in the cage Christina! It's lovely and it's also been fantastic watching you grow. I'm late to this battle, but it's been a very good one!!! Best of luck to you both in the judging.

oh man this battle started on fire... I was really excited when I seen the first 2 designs in this battle and knew we were in for a treat.
Well you guys certainly didn't disappoint but I do feel we lost a little momentum in round 2.
Its really nice to have some fresh meat in the cage and going up against a season veteran wasn't going to be easy, but you came out all guns a blazin and certainly displayed your skills and understanding of the game play within the cage.
Christina I thought round 1 was some of your best ever artwork and its so nice to see you take it to another level with each and ever battle, saying that I wasn't a fan of your round 5 to me this was the differentiation in the whole battle.

crazychristina, I recommend you play around with some lighting application when blending images together, it will help reduce the sharp contrasted edges of your cutouts.
Pay attention to light source and direction, and you will soon find your images more realistic.

R1V2
Well done on isolation and trying to copy the desert scene off to the right side. When isolating, I think a better job could be done to make it a little softer in points.

R2V1
mad PS skillz. I think this could have used a bit of a levels layer to make all pop out a bit more. I see the clouds/plane exhaust and I think that it could have been heightened a bit in comparison to the character. Love the creativity.

R2V2
really lovely mood set here. I don't know what's a photo altogether but from the PSD file, it's all one photo. I do think that the carryover is a bit weak. Try using the carryover on Multiply blending mode. It shouldn't "cover" the brick/lines, it should sink in.

R3V1
I highly recommend not taking a previous image and upscaling for size. The bricks look awful compared to the baby. The shadows are a bit confusing as if there are people in front of the baby but he's not looking up. Overall, a confusing message.

R3V2
Christina, you made a comment on the fact that your ratings were lower on this image V previous image and you seemed under the impression that because there was more work and more going on that people should respect that. I think that the simpler the better unless you can pull it off. Baby's face has a black line around his chin and cheek where you cut his head, the crown has no good shadow, the coat is poorly composed with wierd dots. None of this fit his feet. The color of the baby is very unhealthy compared to the light in the room. The chair is not cleanly cut on the insides (showing the knight armor). I love the knights, they look awesome in the background. If you had blurred them to make a shallower DOF for the rest of the front of the king baby, that would have helped the isolation issues. Another thing that might have helped is to darken the background - again, the isolation issues plus the light issues might have been less apparent.

R4V1
well executed, love you how found a great model to sit in that chair, I imagine it took a while to find! I don't care for the glow on the chair, having been in battle before and getting nagged by going along with the previous round (isolation), I'm not going to let it slide too much. I wish the girl had a bit more depth to the dress. Love the baby angel and the creativity with the reflection in the glasses. Suggestion: clean the teeth up a bit and there's a confusing pattern on the left shoulder (suit?) and a bit of pink on the t-shirt.

R4V2
Really nice composition, I like the direction. Again, with isolation...harsh lines throughout. Once you have your object isolated, try this: select it and modify - expand or contract/feather by one pixel especially the items which need to appear a bit more shallow (further away).

R5V1
Love the composition, lens flare is a little over the top for how dark the entire scene is. It makes the King Kong character look much more plastic than I think you meant (?). Wish the carryover could have stayed in place a bit more.

R5V2
Thanks finally for carryover in place. I like the idea. I don't understand the partial cape - why is there a hole in it? Unfortunately, the main character is so cut out and sharpened (especially his face) that the scene is not very unbelievable. Again, add some depth to your 3D, blurring the background buildings might help.

Overall: sad face for lack of keeping much in place for carryover. Happy face: Really enjoyed the creativity throughout.

Glad you joined the Steel Cage, 1507kot! and so glad you keep working on it, Christina!